World’s wealthiest countries host less than 9% refugees: Report

London, July 18 (IANS) The world’s six wealthiest countries host less than 9 per cent of the world’s refugees, a new report issued on Monday said.

While the US, China, Japan, Germany, France and UK make up more than half the global economy, in 2015 they only hosted 2.1 million refugees and asylum seekers — just 8.88 per cent of the world’s total, international aid organisation, Oxfam said in its report.

Germany took the largest share of refugees among the world’s richest countries (around 700,000), with the remaining 1.4 million split between the other five nations, CNN reported citing the report.

In sharp contrast, the nations that host more than half of the world’s refugees and asylum seekers account for less than 2 per cent of the world’s GDP, the report noted.

“It is shameful so many governments are turning their backs on the suffering of millions of vulnerable people who have fled their homes and are often risking their lives to reach safety,” CNN quoted Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, as saying.

“Poorer countries are shouldering the duty of protecting refugees when it should be a shared responsibility,” she added.

According to the UN, the number of displaced people is currently at the highest ever recorded, surpassing even post-Second World War numbers.

More than 65 million people — one out of every 113 people on the planet — have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence or persecution, a 5.8-million increase on the year before, CNN quoted the UNHCR as saying.